Most haunting song ever

[RedImperator]

So I was doing research for a lesson on the period of American history called "the nadir of American race relations" (generally the years between 1880 and 1920), and I discovered Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit". It's by far the darkest, most haunting song I've ever heard. Here are the lyrics:

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

Holiday sings it at the speed of a dirge, accompanied only by a piano and saxophone. Nothing I've ever heard comes close.

[fgalkin]

I take it you've never heard of that song before? Yes it is dark, and it is haunting.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[RedImperator]

I take it you've never heard of that song before? Yes it is dark, and it is haunting.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

I'd heard OF it, but never HEARD it before.

[DesertFly]

Holy crap, I remember hearing that song on Ken Burns' Jazz. I had to stop and just think for awhile.

[Joe]

I just gave it a listen. It was the "bulging eyes and twisted mouth" that sent the chill down my spine. The imagery is incredible.

[Agent Fisher]

A good piece of nice haunting music is "Amazing Grace" played on a single bagpipe slowly. Like the funeral scene for Spock in ST:TWoK. Now, I dont know if it matches this, since I havent heard this song.

[RedImperator]

A good piece of nice haunting music is "Amazing Grace" played on a single bagpipe slowly. Like the funeral scene for Spock in ST:TWoK. Now, I dont know if it matches this, since I havent heard this song.

In my opinion, "Strange Fruit" makes "Amazing Grace" sound about as haunting as "Baby Got Back". That's not a knock on Amazing Grace, either. The combination of the lyrics, Holliday's voice, and the subject matter is what makes "Strange Fruit" so dark.

[Enigma]

For me it is Enya's "Boadicea". beautiful and spinetingling.

[CarsonPalmer]

For me, its "Cat's In The Cradle", particularly the very end, with "He'd grown up just like me", the chorus, obviously, and the second verse about the boy's birthday.

[Lonestar]

O Death From Brother Where Art Thou.

O, Death
O, Death
Won't you spare me over til another year
Well what is this that I can't see
With ice cold hands takin' hold of me
Well I am death, none can excel
I'll open the door to heaven or hell
Whoa, death someone would pray
Could you wait to call me another day
The children prayed, the preacher preached
Time and mercy is out of your reach
I'll fix your feet til you cant walk
I'll lock your jaw til you cant talk
I'll close your eyes so you can't see
This very air, come and go with me
I'm death I come to take the soul
Leave the body and leave it cold
To draw up the flesh off of the frame
Dirt and worm both have a claim
O, Death
O, Death
<snip>

[fgalkin]

In the field tanks roared,
Soldiers went into their last battle,
And they carried off the young commander
Shot through the head
And they carried off the young commander
Shot through the head

An ingot of iron struck the tank,
Goodbye our crew.
Four bodies by the tank
Add to the morning landscape
Four bodies by the tank
Add to the morning landscape

The machine is embraced by flame,
Just about ripping open the unit,
And the boys so wanted to live
But they don't have the strength to get out
And the boys so wanted to live
But they don't have the strength to get out

They will pull us out from under the scrap metal,
Our carcasses smoke in their arms.
And the volleys of the mainguns
See us of off on our final journey
And the volleys of the mainguns
See us of off on our final journey

And here telegrams will fly,
Informing relatives and close friends,
That your son will not return
And won't come to visit
That your son will not return
And won't come to visit

In the corner the old mother begins to cry,
The old father brushes away a tear,
And the young girl won't learn,
How the young fellow died
And the young girl won't learn,
How the young fellow died.

And a picture will gather dust,
On a shelf full of yellowed books,
In a military uniform with shoulderboards
And to her he isn't a groom anymore
In a military uniform with shoulderboards
And to her he isn't a groom anymore.

english translation brought to you by http://www.geocities.com/a3apt/notdone/napoletank.html
!report any error/typo here! ***

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Dalton]

Reminds me of "Civil War" by Guns N' Roses.

[Melchior]

Well, Queens of the Stone Age's "Mosquito Song" is quite disturbing:

Oh,I know when the sun is hot
Mosquitoes come to suck your blood
Leave you there all alone
Just skin and bone
When you walk among the trees
Listening to the leaves
The further I go the less I know
The less I know

Where will you run?
Where will you hide?
Lullabies
To paralyze

Fat and soft, pink and weak
Foot and thigh, tongue and cheek
You know I'm told they swallow you whole
Skin and bone
Cutting boards and hanging hooks
Bloody knives, cooking books
Promising you won't feel a thing
At all

Swallow and chew
Eat you alive
All of us food that, hasn't died
And the knife says...

Somehow they pick and pluck
Tenderize bone to dust
The sweetest grease, finest meat you'll ever taste
(Taste, taste)
So you scream, whine, and yell
Supple sounds of dinner bells
We all will feed the worms and trees so don't be shy

Swallow and chew
Eat you alive
All of us food that hasn't died

[aerius]

Yup, "Strange Fruit" is up there on the creepy songs list.
On the top of my list is "Me And A Gun" by Tori Amos. It's sung completely unaccompanied which just makes it even more haunting.


Me And A Gun

5am
Friday morning
Thursday night
Far from sleep
I'm still up and driving
Can't go home
obviously
So I'll just change direction
Cause they'll soon konw where I live
And I wanna live

Got a full tank and some chips
It was me and a gun
And a man on my back
And I sang "holy holy" as he buttoned down his pants
You can laugh
It's kind of funny things you think
at times like these
Like I haven't seen Barbados
So I must get out of this

Yes I wore a slinky red thing
Does that mean I should spread
For you, your friends your father, Mr. Ed

Me and a gun
and a man
On my back
But I haven't seen Barbados
So I must get out of this
Yes I wore a slinky red thing
Does that mean I should spread
For you, your friends your father, Mr. Ed
And I know what this means
Me and Jesus a few years back
Used to hang and he said
"It's your choice babe just remember
I don't think you'll be back in 3 days time
So you choose well"
Tell me what's right
Is it my right to be on my stomach
of Fred's Seville

Me and a gun
and a man
On my back
But I haven't seen Barbados
So I must get out of this

And do you know Carolina
Where the biscuits are soft and sweet
These things go through you head
When there's a man on your back
And you're pushed flat on your stomach
It's not a classic cadillac

Me and a gun
and a man
On my back
But I haven't seen Barbados
So I must get out of this


Another one that creeps me out is "97' Bonnie & Clyde", as sung by Tori Amos. With lyrics like
Da-da made a nice bed for mommy at the bottom of the lake
Here, you wanna help da-da tie a rope around this rock? (yeah!)
We'll tie it to her footsie then we'll roll her off the dock
Ready now, here we go, on the count of free..
One.. two.. free.. WHEEEEEE!, it's just disturbing. I've heard both songs performed live and it's just not right.

[The Aliens]

Radiohead's "Pyramid Song"- not in terms of lyrics so much as instrumentation.

[The Yosemite Bear]

mind you I have actually gotten away with putting my Billie Holliday CD into the regular Muzak at work for the guests to hear....

so far no one has complained....

[aerius]

Found another one. "Julia", arranged by Sarah Slean and sung by Our Lady Peace. It's a rare live version that you might be able to find on a sharing network somewhere.

The original OLP version is just another rock song, the Sarah Slean version slows it down to a dirge and is just voice & piano.

[Rogue 9]

A good piece of nice haunting music is "Amazing Grace" played on a single bagpipe slowly. Like the funeral scene for Spock in ST:TWoK. Now, I dont know if it matches this, since I havent heard this song.

Like this?

[Fleet Admiral JD]

The arrangement of "Strange Fruit" I have also has a drumset, in addition to the sax (alto or tenor?) and piano.

[TheBlackCat]

"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfood. One of the more moving song I know. It is so moving I can't even read the lyrics:

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called 'Gitche Gumee'
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty.
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early.

The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ship's bell rang
Could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too,
T'was the witch of November come stealin'.
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the Gales of November came slashin'.
When afternoon came it was freezin' rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind.

When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin'.
Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya.
At Seven P.M. a main hatchway caved in, he said
Fellas, it's been good t'know ya
The captain wired in he had water comin' in
And the good ship and crew was in peril.
And later that night when his lights went outta sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does any one know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searches all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her.
They might have split up or they might have capsized;
May have broke deep and took water.
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion.
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams;
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her,
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the Gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral.
The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call 'Gitche Gumee'.
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early!

Another one is "Last Mango in Paris" by Jimmy Buffett. I know most people wouldn't expect such a song from Jimmy Buffet, but he has a few. I get chills down my spine at several points during this song:

I went down to Captain Tony's
To get out of the heat
Then I heard a voice call out to me
"Son come have a seat"
I had to search my memory
As I looked into those eyes
Our lives change like the weather
But a legend never dies

He said I ate the last mango in Paris
Took the last plane out of Saigon
Took the first fast boat to China
And Jimmy there's still so much to be done

I had a third world girl in Buzios
With a pistol in each hand
She always kept me covered
As we moved from land to land

I had a damn good run on Wall Street
With my high fashion model wife
I woke up dry beneath the African sky
Just me and my Swiss Army knife

I ate the last mango in Paris
Took the last plane out of Saigon
Took the first fast boat to China
And Jimmy there's still so much to be done

We shot the breeze for hours
As the sun fell from the sky
And like the sun he disappeared
Before my very eyes

It was somewhere past dark-thirty
And I went back to the head
I read upon the dingy wall
The words the old man said:

I ate the last mango in Paris
Took the last plane out of Saigon
Took the first fast boat to China
And Jimmy there's still so much to be done

I ate the last mango in Paris
Took the last plane out of Saigon
Took the first fast boat to China
And Jimmy there's still so much to be done

That's why we wander and follow La Vie Dansante

[Plekhanov]

I've always found 'The world turned upside down' written by Leon Rosselson and recorded by loads of folk singers and is a strong enough song to still be extremely moving even when being mangled.

In sixteen forty nine, to St George's Hill
a ragged band they called the Diggers came to show the peoples' will
they defied the Landlords, they defied the laws
they were the dispossessed, reclaiming what was theirs

"We come in peace" they said, to dig and sow
we come to work the lands in common and to make the wastegrounds grow
this earth divided, we will make whole
so it will be a common treasury for all

The sin of property, we do disdain
no man has any right to buy and sell the earth for private gain
by theft and murder, they took the land
now everywhere the walls spring up at their command

They make the laws, to chain us well
the clergy dazzle us with heaven or they damn us into hell
we will not worship, the god they serve
the god of greed who feeds the rich while poor man starve

We work, we eat together, we need no swords
we will not bow to the masters or pay rent to the lords
we are free men, though we are poor
you diggers all stand up for glory stand up now

From the men of property, the orders came
they sent the hired men and troopers to wipe out the Diggers' claim
tear down their cottages, destroy their corn
they were dispersed, but still the vision lingers on

You poor take courage, you rich take care
this earth was made a common treasury for everyone to share
all things in common, all people one
we come in peace, the orders came to cut them down

Sam Stone by John Prine always really gets to me too I've only heard the origional version though so I'm not sure to what extent it's power is down to Prines fantastic performance.

Sam Stone

Sam Stone came home,
To his wife and family
After serving in the conflict overseas.
And the time that he served,
Had shattered all his nerves,
And left a little shrapnel in his knee.
But the morphine eased the pain,
And the grass grew round his brain,
And gave him all the confidence he lacked,
With a Purple Heart and a monkey on his back.

Chorus:
There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes,
Jesus Christ died for nothin' I suppose.
Little pitchers have big ears,
Don't stop to count the years,
Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios.
Mmm....

Sam Stone's welcome home
Didn't last too long.
He went to work when he'd spent his last dime
And Sammy took to stealing
When he got that empty feeling
For a hundred dollar habit without overtime.
And the gold rolled through his veins
Like a thousand railroad trains,
And eased his mind in the hours that he chose,
While the kids ran around wearin' other peoples' clothes...

Repeat Chorus:

Sam Stone was alone
When he popped his last balloon
Climbing walls while sitting in a chair
Well, he played his last request
While the room smelled just like death
With an overdose hovering in the air
But life had lost its fun
And there was nothing to be done
But trade his house that he bought on the G. I. Bill

For a flag draped casket on a local heroes' hill.

Repeat Chorus

[TheBlackCat]

Another moving Jimmy Buffet song is "He Went to Paris":

He went to Paris lookin' for answers
To questions that bothered him so
He was impressive, young and aggressive
Savin' the world on his own

But the warm summer breezes
The French wines and cheeses
Put his ambition at bay
The summers and winters
Scattered like splinters
And four or five years slipped away

Then he went to England, played the piano
And married an actress named Kim
They had a fine life, she was a good wife
And bore him a young son named Jim

And all of the answers and all of the questions
Locked in his attic one day
'Cause he liked the quiet clean country livin'
And twenty more years slipped away

Well the war took his baby, the bombs killed his lady
And left him with only one eye
His body was battered, his whole world was shattered
And all he could do was just cry

While the tears were a-fallin' he was recallin'
Answers he never found
So he hopped on a freighter, skidded the ocean
And left England without a sound

Now he lives in the islands, fishes the pilin's
And drinks his Green Label each day
Writing his memoirs, losin' his hearin'
But he don't care what most people say

Through eighty-six years of perpetual motion
If he likes you he'll smile and he'll say
"Jimmy, some of it's magic, some of it's tragic
But I had a good life all the way"

And he went to Paris lookin' for answers
To questions... that bothered him so

Another is a remix I have of the Mike Oldfield song "Moonlight Shadow". It sounds perfectly alright when just listening to the music, but it gets moving when you actually start paying attention to the lyrics and realize what is going on. It is one of those songs where I can't figure out why it isn't insanely depressing:

The last that ever she saw him,
Carried away by a moonlight shadow
He passed on worried and warning,
Carried away by a moonlight shadow
Lost in a riddle that Saturday night,
Far away on the other side
He was caught in the middle of a desperate fight,
And she couldn't find how to push through.

The trees that whisper in the evening
Varried away by a moonlight shadow,
Sing the song of sorrow and grieving
Carried away by a moonlight shadow,
All she saw was a silhouette of a gun,
Far away on the other side,
He was shot six times by a man on the run,
And she couldn't find how to push through.

I stay, I pray, I see you in heaven far away,
I stay, I pray, I see you in heaven one day.

Four a.m. in the morning
Carried away by a moonlight shadow,
I watched your vision forming
Carried away by a moonlight shadow,
Star was glowin' in a silvery night
Far away on the other side,
Will you come to talk to me this night
But she couldn't find how to push through.

I stay, I pray, I see you in heaven far away,
I stay, I pray, I see you in heaven one day.

Caught in the middle of a hundred and five.
The night was heavy and the air was alive,
But she couldn't find how to push through.

Carried away by a moonlight shadow.
Carried away by a moonlight shadow...

[NeoGoomba]

Always enjoyed "Fade to Black" by Metallica along those "haunting" lines. That, and the instrumental after the lyrics is a great ass-kicking song

"Life it seems will fade away
Drifting further everyday
Getting lost within myself
Nothing matters no one else
I have lost the will to live Simply nothing more to give
There is nothing more for me
Need the end to set me free

Things not what they used to be Missing one inside of me
Deadly loss this cant be real
Cannot stand this hell i feel
Emptiness is filling me To the point of agony
Growing darkness taking dawn
I was me but now, hes gone

No one but me can save myself, but its too late
Now i cant think, think why i should even try

Yesterday seems as though it never existed
Death greets me warm, now i will just say goodbye
Goodbye"

[RedImperator]

The arrangement of "Strange Fruit" I have also has a drumset, in addition to the sax (alto or tenor?) and piano.

There's a little bit of cymbals in the beginning of the arrangement I have (the original 1935 recording), but they go silent as soon as she starts singing.

[Bounty]

Die Moorsoldaten. Written in the early labour camps around '33 by political prisoners who worked in the bogs. It sounds like a campfire song until you start paying attention to the lyrics :

Wohin auch das Auge blicket,
Moor und Heide nur ringsum.
Vogelsang uns nie erquicket,
Eichen stehen kahl und krumm.
Wir sind die Moorsoldaten
und ziehen mit dem Spaten ins Moor.

Hier in dieser öden Heide
ist das Lager aufgebaut,
wo wir fern von jeder Freude
hinter Stacheldraht verstaut.
wir sind die Moorsoldaten
und ziehen mit dem Spaten ins Moor.

Morgens ziehen die Kolonnen
in das Moor zur Arbeit hin,
graben bei dem Brand der Sonnen,
doch zur Heimat steht ihr Sinn.
Wir sind die Moorsoldaten
und ziehen mit dem Spaten ins Moor.


Heimwärts, heimwärts! Jeder sehnet
sich nach Eltern, Weib und Kind.
Manche Brust ein Seufzer dehnet,
weil wir hier gefangen sind.
Wir sind die Moorsoldaten
und ziehen mit dem Spaten ins Moor.

Auf und nieder gehn die Posten,
keiner, keiner kann hindurch.
Flucht wird nur das Leben kosten.
Vierfach ist umzäunt die Burg.
Wir sind die Moorsoldaten
und ziehen mit dem Spaten ins Moor.

Doch für uns gibt es kein Klagen.
Ewig kann´s nicht Winter sein.
Einmal werden froh wir sagen:
Heimat , du bist wieder mein!
Dann ziehn die Moorsoldaten
nicht mehr mit dem Spaten ins Moor.

Less haunting but still quite gripping is The Levellers' Another Man's Cause :

...

Now she wonders at it all
Just in his name did he break, your heroes fall
And how many more are gonna answer the call
They’re gonna fight, fight and die in another country’s war
They’re gonna die for religion, they didn’t believe in at all
They’re gonna die in a place, they should never been at all

...